Oil little changed as Opec boosts forecast

London: Oil traded little changed as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) boosted its forecast for demand for its oil while a US industry report showed the country's crude inventories at their highest since October.

The group, due to meet on March 17, bolstered its forecast for the "call-on- Opec" crude in 2010 by 150,000 barrels a day, while cautioning that the recovery appears "uncertain". The American Petroleum Institute (API) said crude inventories rose to the most since October and gasoline supplies reached the highest level since March 1999.

"Oil's still the investment of choice; with the risk of inflation, people invest in commodities," Johannes Benigni, chief executive officer of JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna. "There's not much chance for Opec to do much. As long as oil is $70 or higher, a production cut is going to be difficult to sell."

Crude oil for March delivery was 14 cents higher at $73.89 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:52am in London.

It earlier dropped as much as 57 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to $73.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday the contract rose 2.6 per cent, the most in a week. Futures have lost more than 7 per cent this year.

US crude stockpiles gained 7.2 million barrels to 337.6 million in the week to February 5, according to the API.

Gasoline supplies rebounded 1.6 million barrels to 228.8 million.

An Energy Department report due February 12 may also show stockpiles grew, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts.